White Christians now a minority of U.S. population

Americans who identify as both white and Christian comprise less than 50 percent of the population, according to a new survey.

The Public Religion Research Institute study found that just 43 percent of Americans make up that cohort, down from 81 percent as recently as 1976. The trend is attributable to immigration, a rapid increase in the number of Americans who identify as religiously unaffiliated and an aging Christian population.

The survey also shows that the number of white Christians in the Democratic Party has declined dramatically. The demographic makes up just 29 percent of the party’s base, compared to 50 percent one decade ago.

Roughly three-quarters of Republicans, meanwhile, still identify as white and Christian.

America’s increasing diversity is captured in the ethnic transformation of the Catholic church. Twenty-five years ago, nearly nine out of 10 Catholics were white. Today, Catholics under 30 are more likely to be Hispanic, 52 percent, than white, 36 percent.

Atheists and agnostics continue to comprise a larger share of the U.S. population. More than one-quarter, 27 percent, of Americans today identify as religiously unaffiliated.

There are now 20 states where the religiously unaffiliated are a plurality, including: Vermont (41 percent), Oregon (36 percent), Washington (35 percent), Hawaii (34 percent), Colorado (33 percent) and New Hampshire (33 percent).

Nearly half of all LGBT Americans, 46 percent, also identify as religiously unaffiliated.

White Christians have also aged in a way that other major religions in America have not.

More than one-third of Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists in America are under the age of 30. By contrast, just 11 percent of white Catholics, 11 percent of white evangelical Protestants and 14 percent of white mainline Protestants are under the age of 30.

Sixty-two percent of white Catholics, 62 percent of white evangelical Protestants and 59 percent of mainline Protestants are at least 50 years old.

The findings, published on Wednesday by PRRI, are based off of the 2016 American Values Atlas, the largest survey of American religion ever conducted. It includes a sample of more than 101,000 Americans from all 50 states.